Radio City taps into the devotional segment

PlanetRadiocity has grown its bouquet with the launch of its fifth online radio station – Radio City Smaran. The station will go beyond the traditional space and offer a variety of genres such as Bhajans, Classical, Sufi, Chants, Wellness music and so on.

Radio City Smaran is the fourth online radio station to be launched this year on PlanetRadiocity after Radio City Indipop, Radio City Freedom and Radio City Hindi and holds strategic importance for PlanetRadiocity as there is no other dedicated station in the devotional space.

Commenting on the launch, Rachna Kanwar, SVP & Business Head, Digital Media & New Business, Radio City said, “The uniqueness of Radio City Smaran lies in its programming approach that goes beyond a single genre like Bhajans or Mantras. The music mix has been carefully selected keeping in mind a broader set of audiences across religions and sects. In fact, it goes beyond religious music. The programming line-up also includes hand-picked healing and wellness music. The idea is to provide relief to stressed out minds, and encourage a sense of well being.”

Kanwar explained that the major factor that motivated them to establish Radio City Smaran is that devotional content has clicked really well with the audience in the past. The terrestrial Radio City station airs devotional music every morning from 5AM to 7AM, which has taken off really well. Also, Radio City Fun Ka Antenna airs a show named ‘Soul Lounge’ (which offers Sufi music and a number of other genres that will be played on Radio City Smaran too), which has connected with the listeners well too.

While PlanetRadiocity is targeting 25+ audience, they expect younger TG to be a part of it too because of the nature of the content. Kanwar pointed out that statistics reveal that 36 per cent of music consumed online is devotional music in India. In addition to this, the song section on PlanetRadiocity also points out that listeners prefer listening to assembled set of songs more than discovering songs. Thus, looking at the trends of internet users, Radio City Smaran seems to fit the bill perfectly.

Radio City Smaran will be launched on the terrestrial Radio City station by playing a special aarti sung by Anup Jalota across 15 stations of the network. The listeners will also be given the opportunity to send across compositions of their devotional songs, bhajans, and so on.

2012 was a very active year in terms of web radio, as radio players were keen on the medium not only to tap the youth TG, but also because digital gave them a chance to provide genre wise content, an opportunity that was missed by terrestrial radio due to Phase III.